Jonselis wrote:

José Mourinho seems very interested in Serge Aurier, all the more so Paris SG want to let the ivorian right back go. Aurier is young (24) and one of the best right backs even if his level seemed to decrease last season in Ligue 1. The deal for Aurier would cost around 25 millions euros.

Mourinho made fun of the LA Galaxy squad after the 5-2 victory over the californian side for our fisrt game of the US summe tour, saying that it was a good training game ! Typical Mourinho ! Our scorers were : Rashford (twice), Fellaini, Mkhitaryan and Martial.
Our portuguese manager made no less than eleven substitutions at half time, when the Red Devils were leading 5-0.

It was 3-0 half time leading

So, Matic is our third signing. I think we're probably overpaying, which means I'm not a fan of the deal. But I guess Matic is a good player. It's getting late in the window and we had to get something done ASAP and he is not a Fellaini type of a panic buy. He'll improve the midfield, where we don't really have that many players(as Blind isn't in consideration there it seems).

All in all I'm satisfied but not excessively happy about the transfer. It's good that it didn't drag on any longer. I guess we're pretty much set for the season in terms of transfers now.

Defender, midfielder and central forward.
Who said Brian Clough? :D

He's a good, but not excellent, player and I'm sure he will fit the need of a defensive midfielder. He has experience but his age and price are bit high. I would have preferred Dier or maybe look further to someone younger and talented like William Carvalho, but other hand it is august already and the need of a defensive midfielder was there.

I think it's a very good signing, it releases Pogba to play further forward in a more attacking role without having to worry about what's behind him. I have a feeling we'll see a much more improved and influential Pogba this year as a result.

I guess we'll see how things are working. I do agree that it might unleash both Pogba and Herrera. Both would like to play the 'number 8' role in the team - midfielders but with license to move forward but not burdened with having to be the main creator like a number 10. I think this allows us to play a very strong 4-1-4-1 line-up with:
De Gea
Valencia-Bailly-Smalling-Shaw
Matic
Mkhitaryan-Herrera-Pogba-Rashford
Lukaku

The midfield should be strong and we have a lot of pace and energy to press high up the pitch as well as all five players there are younger and will be able to press well when needed.

The disappointing part of the transfer is that Matic will be good for 3-4 years, but then he'll fade. I don't think he has the quality of someone like Scholes/Giggs/Carrick to play until he is 40 and soon enough we'll have to replace him. Assuming he succeeds(which is not certain) we will soon need to replace him. I can live with that type of a transfer because most of Jose's transfers at United have been younger players - Bailly, Pogba, Lindelöf and Lukaku could all play for the next decade at United. Adding a few experienced players to the mix to raise our level to the required standards is not too bad.

Going to point out you left out Lindelof. I think he replaces Smalling. I also think Shaw is far from guaranteed anything.

I did leave him out. I think he hasn't outshined the other CBs in pre-season. At first I put CB and LB instead of Smalling and Shaw, but decided to include them to make the line-up look better :). I haven't been that impressed with Lindelöf so far and Shaw has not been featuring lately either. I think we'll see a lot of CB-rotation this season anyway with the two games every week and it's really anyones guess who will be our main CB-pairing next spring if everyone is fit. Jones has been solid (AND fit!!!) lately, Smalling is good IMO, Rojo is probably going to come back strong and Lindelöf will adjust to United at some point. Bailly is the only one who is probably the clear first choice.
As for LB I don't know who will play there either - I'm just hoping that Shaw will focus on football and becomes the LB we know he could be. Blind isn't bad, Darmian and Young can fill a gap and there are a few young boys who can play there as well, but.. yeah, you'd hope that Shaw delivers.

Duncan1 wrote:

I think it's a very good signing, it releases Pogba to play further forward in a more attacking role without having to worry about what's behind him. I have a feeling we'll see a much more improved and influential Pogba this year as a result.

Agreed.
I think Pogba will "profit" most of all, from the arrival of Matić.
I expect him to have a great season and silence the critics.
Concerning Matić himself, we are probably overpaying, but I guess Mourinho wanted an experienced player in such a delicate position. At the same time, José gets someone he knows and trusts, someone who knows his system through and through, someone who can hit the ground running.

At the end, I am pleased to see another Nemanja in United shirt :)

I like this news. I like what little I've seen from him, but Mourinho doesn't seem to trust him yet. Will be happy to see him get a string of games at a high level.

(http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/40851164)

Yeah, that's good news. De Boer is probably the type of a manager who will not be afraid to use a young player as well. Interesting to see where he gets used though. Palace have.. ok players both at right back and centre back and not so bad ones in midfield either - there is no clear hole in their squad that Fosu-Mensah would fill.

Hopefully he impresses there and comes back to provide serious competition for Valencia.

Yeah I really hope he does well for Crystal Palace and gets a lot of game time, I really have high hopes for this lad, I see him compete with Matic for Def. midfielder role in a couple of years :-)